Josh Universe carries a few computers under his skin. The 22-year-old has multiple subdermal implants he uses for access control and authentication, and he’s documented the whole setup in a video for anyone curious about what daily life as a self-described cyborg actually looks like. “I am also a cyborg and have several subdermal implants which I use for things like access control, authentication, and more,” he says. That’s the part people fixate on. It’s also the smallest piece of what he’s working on.
Josh Universe is an analog astronaut candidate, a science communicator, and the founder of two of the larger online networks dedicated to biohacking and transhumanism. Based in Melbourne, Florida, he started his bachelor’s in astrophysics at the Florida Institute of Technology in 2022 and began a Master of Science in Commercial Enterprise in Space at the same school in 2024. His path into this work started with a single piece of television. “What originally sparked my interest was watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey by Neil deGrasse Tyson, which first sparked my curiosity about space and science,” he says. He’s been chasing it ever since.
While at Florida Tech, he built Universe Launches, a tracker for rocket launches and astronomical events. The university covered the project in its student news. Biohacking arrived a year earlier. In 2021, a documentary and the Dangerous Things online forum pulled him in, back when most practitioners still called it grinding or human augmentation rather than the wellness-flavored version that’s taken over the term today. The astrophysics coursework followed the next year, and Universe has been running on parallel tracks since.
The communities he runs reflect that older, more experimental orientation. The International Biohacking Community spans a dedicated forum, a media site, a main website, Discord servers, Telegram groups, and the larger biohacking subreddits, including the grinders sub for people doing implant work. The Transhumanist Council follows the same playbook with its own forum, blog, Discord, and adjacent platforms. Both are built with a long-term goal Josh Universe doesn’t shy away from naming. “They are both digital-first communities with the eventual goal of having a physical city or country of people from these communities,” he says. The blueprint he points to is the Network State concept, which has been gathering its own following among technologists thinking about post-geographic communities.
His third major project is Astrochain, a company aimed at bringing space science research and observation data onto the blockchain. The early focus is object tracking and verifiable astronomical records, with a broader pitch around science empowerment. It’s an experimental swing, and Universe treats it that way. The idea that astronomy, an inherently collaborative field built on shared observation, might benefit from decentralized infrastructure is the kind of question he likes asking.
He’s also putting in the physical reps. Josh Universe is training through the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences and has started running analog astronaut missions, which he writes about on his blog. These are simulated missions designed to test human performance in space-like conditions, and they’re a real on-ramp for commercial astronaut candidates. The training itself is the work right now, mission simulations, space systems operations, spacesuit evaluations, suborbital prep, and the kind of leadership exercises that fill an astronaut candidate’s calendar.
What ties the pieces together is a worldview. Josh Universe is openly pro-science in a moment when flat-earth and moon-landing-denial content circulates widely online. He’s named that as one of the things he wants his work to push back on. “I hope that I am able to significantly reduce the impact that pseudoscience and conspiracy theories have on people and foster a pro-science culture,” he says. The implants, the analog missions, the blockchain experiments, the subreddits all roll up into a single project. He’s building places where people who want to think bigger about the future can actually find each other.
For now, you can track all of it through joshuniverse.com, his blog, and his accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
